Aspen 3 28 Certified

The Aspen 3 should be ready by the end of January 2009. Rumours are that the 28 has just passed certification Cen C

2 NEW WORLD RECORDS

On Sunday 14th December, Nevil Hulett flew the first ever 500km flight on a paraglider from Copperton in South Africa. He also broke the Distance to Goal record at 402km. The flight took 7 hours 40 mins at an amazing average of 65kph.

The forecast was for perfect zone close to the trough line with a 15,000-18,000ft cloud base and 5m/s thermals and strong winds from the WNW.

James Braid reports:-

The conditions were really strong, high clouds, strong winds, strong thermals, just the stuff one needs. Unfortunately, only a handful of pilots in the world can handle that kind of flying.”

Other pilots choose not to fly as it was 'technically blown out'.

Congratulations to Nevil. It is great to see the Record back in South Africa!

For more news see ParaglidingForum and FlyGirls Website

STOP PRESS Nevil has downloaded the flight log here. 503.6km straight line using WGS84 Ellipsoid!! (One airspace bust to resolve before ratification - Airway W81 and , um, landing in another country!)


On the same day a group of Atos pilots who have been at a record encampment at Postmasburg to the North West had some great flights. The longest was Toni Raumauf who flew 527km (but his flight goes through Kimberley and Blomfontein CTR's, lets hope that Neville's flight is deemed legal)

Big Distances in South Africa

South African Gradient importer, James Braid, reports that flights of 342 and 321km were made from Groblershoop (100km SE of Uppington) on 1st December. The day started perfectly but high level cirrus later in the day shut things down. The pilots landed near Colsburg with one pilot climbing at a sustained 10m/s along the way.

Longest flight of the 2008/2009 season so far

Martin Gorayski flies 371.9 km from Quixada and leads the FAI World XC Online Contest and the World XContest

Gradient Aspen 3 Proto goes well in South Africa

Congratulations to Ondrej Dupal (Gradient Director) who put the Gradient Aspen 3 proto through its paces winning 2 tasks at the De Aar Pre-Xc Open. The glider should be ready by March 2009.

The competition was won by Nevil Hulett (Mac Para Magus 6) with Adam Dolezal 3rd (Gradient Avax XC2 - 2nd Serial), Jon Pio 4th (Gradient Aspen 2 - 1st Sports), Ondrej Dupal 5th (Gradient Aspen 3), Damian Sykes 6th (Gradient Aspen 2 - 2nd Sports) and ... Des Pansi 8th (1st Female).

The competition was marred by the death of competitor Wojciech Siudek from Poland. It looks like he died from Impact Trauma after hitting or turning low to avoid power lines 160km down route. Our sympathies go out to his family and friends.

New South African Ladies Open Distance Record

Congratulations to Des Pansi who has just set a new South African Ladies Distance Record at the pre XC Open at De Aar. Ondrej Dupal won the first day with a flight via 3 turnpoints of 247.6km on a prototype Aspen 3, Adam Dolezal was 2nd with 238.7km (Gradient Avax XC2) and Des was 3rd with 210.1km also on an XC2. Clean sweep for Gradient! The weather forecast is looking great for the next few days. Have a look at that cloud base to the north!

Fly Pics

I have just set up a Picasa Account and will be adding web albums in due course.